


death doesn't come on silent wings (she comes in an old beater car)

by Timballisto



Series: carmilla one shots [2]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: (carmilla is here too i guess), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gen, basically this is laura and kirsch murder quest, i'm not over danny, it's murder time, murder!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 02:07:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4901434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timballisto/pseuds/Timballisto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>or the one where kirsch and laura get their revenge (carmilla does too)</p>
            </blockquote>





	death doesn't come on silent wings (she comes in an old beater car)

There’s a switch, almost, when they carefully wrap Danny’s body in a quilt from the back of the couch. Laura cradled Danny’s head and Kirsch set her gently on the ground and when they stand up… 

Laura could taste rage and helplessness in her mouth, bitter like ash. Her heart was pounding, and grief pumped through her heart like blood ( _left atrium, bicuspid valve, left ventricle, aortic valve, aorta-_ ) and her teeth ached from pure hatred. She looked, and Kirsch wasn’t much better.

Every muscle in his body was a tensed cord, the muscles in his neck taut and his jaw clenched. His hand clutched at his stomach wound, pressing hard enough to bruise. She could see the self-hatred in the way he stood, silently howling at his inability to do anything but stand and watch Danny die. He swayed dangerously, pale from lack of blood.

Their eyes met, and they found unity in a singular purpose. 

* * *

They hunt down Theo first. He was protected, sort of, by a loyal band of cronies who followed him wherever he went. But by anyone’s estimation, the war for Silas was over, with Vordenburg as the uncontested victor.

They were _partying_. Throwing back shots with hands stained with blood. Theo himself, crowing as he came down from a keg stand, staggering slightly before he was caught by two of his Zetas.

Laura tasted blood in her mouth. _I’m going to kill him_ , she thought to herself. It wouldn’t even be hard, she hated him so much-

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Kirsch said, his voice steady. His eyes were dark, and Laura almost found herself missing his stupid little nicknames. Pain from his stomach wound made deep lines in his face, and his breath came a little shorter. Laf had stitched him up, giving him crude stitches and wrapping him up in gauze but they could only do so much.

Laura tightened her grip on Danny’s knife. “Let’s do this.”

Kirsch went first, slipping through the woods towards the bonfire. He was familiar enough with the drinking habits of his president that he knew that Theo would make for the woods to piss as soon as he was finished. That was their opportunity to strike.

Kirsch slipped into the shadow behind a broad oak tree, his palms sweating. He slipped cloth into his hand, doused liberally with chloroform curtesy of La Fontaine, and waited.

Soon enough, he heard the crashing sounds of two people staggering through the woods, their faces briefly illuminated by the firelight dancing through the trees.

It was Theo, followed by a sophomore named Michael. 

Kirsch swallowed, uncertain for the first time since he and Laura had cooked up this plan. Theo would be easy- but Michael? Michael hadn’t done anything.

He shook his head. _Stick to the plan_.

When he heard the tell tale zip of jeans, Kirsch pounced. He brought a forearm up under Theo’s neck to snap his head up, and smothered the cloth over Theo’s nose and mouth.

To his left, he could see Michael blinking stupidly in the half-light. “H-hey-!” He said, his voice almost rising in a shout. Kirsch felt his heart drop as Theo went limp in his arms; he couldn’t stop Michael before he raised the alarm, not with Theo as dead weight and not with his side screaming in agony.

Michael turned to call back to the encampment, but instead of a shout, he emitted a gurgle and a spray of something warm and wet coated Kirsch’s face. There was a dull, slick pulling sound, and the blade of the knife Laura had shoved through his throat retracted. Michael slumped over, dropping with a heavy thud into the leaves at the foot of the oak tree.

“Holy _fuck_.” Kirsch said, his eyes wide. He could feel droplets of arterial spray dripping down his temple.

“Let’s get him out of here.” Laura said shortly. She gathered a few armfuls of dead fall leaves and heaped them over the body. “They’ll find him in the morning.”  


* * *

They took him into the tunnel below her room.

“Are we going to talk about what just happened?” Kirsch asked quietly. He wiped his sweaty brow and grimaced when he merely smeared the blood on his face.

“No, we’re not.” Laura said, tightening the straps that held Theo’s arms and legs to the chair.

“Okay.”

“When will he wake up?” Laura asked, anxiously messing with the pommel of Danny’s knife.

“I dunno.” Kirsch said. “I’m not a science nerd like Laf-”

“I’m awake now you idiots.” Theo groaned, his eyes slit open and nursing what appeared to be a pounding headache. Kirsch hadn’t been too careful with Theo’s head during transport. Also the alcohol.

“Awesome.” Kirsch said. “Now tell us where Vordenburg is.”

“You really are a bunch of fucking morons.” Theo sneered. “Amateurs. What, are you going to say ‘tell us what you know if you want to live’?”

“No.” Laura said. “We’re going to kill you either way.” She said it so matter of fact that Theo stopped mid sneer. 

“Miss Goody Two Shoes would never.”

“Dude.” Kirsch gestured to his blood speckled front. “I’m wearing Michael.”

Theo’s eyes widened and he whipped his head back to face Laura, who advanced slowly. Maybe she had learned something from her murderous vampire girlfriend after all, because Kirsch had to admit, she had the murder-walk down really well.

“It’s suicide to take Vordernburg on!” Theo yelped, jerking in his bonds to try and get away. “You’ll just get killed anyway!”

“I have lost _everything._ ” Laura said, her voice low and intent. “I have tried and tried to do the right thing and all that’s got me is a kidnapped girlfriend and dead friends. I have sacrificed everything, except for my life. So I guess it’s my turn.” She placed the sharp edge of her knife to where Theo’s ear attached to his head. “Where is Vordenburg?” 

* * *

Eventually, Theo gave Laura what she wanted. She went upstairs after that, leaving the Zeta president to Kirsch’s tender mercies.

She held it together remarkably well, focusing on how to infiltrate the library and get to Vordenburg until she got far enough away from the cellar under the house that she couldn’t hear Theo anymore.

And then she caught sight of her hands, covered to her wrists in dried flaking blood. The smell over powered her, and she choked. Laura barely made it to the bathroom before she threw up, her body convulsing as it tried to purge.

“Not feeling so hot, little nerd hottie?” Laura spat into the toilet bowl, looking up at Kirsch framed in the doorway. His face was sad, and his use of her hated nickname fell flat. “I didn’t think blood would make you sick.”

“’Girls see more blood than boys’” Laura said, laughing weakly. It wasn’t the blood and they both knew it.

“Gross.” Kirsch said lightly, helpfully handing Laura a bar of hand soap.

“Is he…?” Laura couldn’t even say it. Her hands shook, remembering the elastic give of the knife and the boys neck.

“Yeah.” Kirsch said. He shifted his hands, and Laura could see the split knuckles and bruises.

“Good.” She said. “Good.”

“Whats the plan, boss?”

Laura took a deep breath, gathering some of that iron rage that’d helped her through dealing with Theo. “Vordenburg is in the library administration room- he has Carmilla locked in the cursed and rare book section where she’s too busy trying not to get killed by vampyre slayer manuals to have much energy to escape.”

“What are we going to do?” Kirsch asked, watching wearily as Laura dried her hands, leaving streaks of red on the white towel.

“One way or another, this ends tonight.” 

* * *

She sent Kirsch to free Carmilla. They needed the vampire to help, not get so angry at the sight of Laura’s face that she refused to escape out of spite. Instead, Laura creeped down the halls of the library.

There were two guards at the front gate, and Laura was concerned about how _unconcerned_ she’d been with putting a crossbow bolt in between their eyes. Other than that, the the place was virtually deserted. It was too quiet, especially when Laura expected to have to fight her way to Vordenburg’s office.

Instead, she reached the head librarians office without seeing another soul. The door was unlocked and the door opened silently. It screamed trap, and she took a hesitant step backwards to make her way back towards the entrance.

She looked back over her shoulder at the empty hallway, devoid of enemies. And friends. Or… anyone, really. 

Laura squared her shoulders. “I’m not scared. I’m not.” She whispered, and the memory of Danny’s last words pushed her on.

“Welcome Laura. I’ve been expecting you.” Vordeburg was standing by a fireplace, the marble mantel almost as tall as his head. Like most places in the library, the room seemed bigger on the inside than the outside. It almost looked like a private study or a library, with dark cherry wooden bookshelves dominated by a huge wooden desk. The carpets were plush and deep wine red.

“I guessed.” Laura said stiffly.

“Then why did you come?” Vordenburg asked. His eyes were cold over the rim of a wine glass.

“Can we save the melodramatic backstory and psychoanalysis. I came to kill you.”

“For what? Locking up your murderess of a girlfriend, Miss Karnstein?” Vordenburg took a sip of his wine, and his papery lips stained red. “Or for ordering the death of that traitor Danny Lawrence-?”

“Don’t you dare say her name!” Laura shouted, crossing the room in four steps to bury her shoulder in his flabby gut. She knocked the wind clean out of him, sending him crashing against the mantel. His wine glass spilled across the carpet like blood.

Laura’s fists came down again and again, slamming into any part of the old man she could reach. There was a satisfying crack when her knuckles crunched against his nose, and his face ran with blood and tears. “She’s dead because of you!” she howled.

She reached back to bring her interlocked fists down, only to have strong arms grab her around the middle and stop her hands mid swing. Two guards dressed in suits and kevlar dragged her off of him. They weren’t college students and they wrestled her into submission with ease. 

“That is- q-quite enough Miss Hollis.” Vordenburg sputtered, limping to his feet. He patted his bloody and bruised face with a handkerchief. His smile was grim. “You should have killed me when you had the chance, not wasted it on pointless violence.”

“As much as it makes me physically sick, he’s right. You should’ve used the jolly green giant’s knife.” A mocking voice came from the corner of the room. Laura looked, and there was Carmilla, Kirsch in tow. She looked the same, if a little worse for wear and Laura tamped down her sigh of relief.

“I’d say I’m sorry she’s dead, but I can’t.” Carmilla said. Her face was emotionless, and Laura couldn’t read her. Instead, she averted her eyes, jerkily nodding as she did so.

“Ah, so nice of you to join us.” If Vordenburg was surprised by Carmilla’s arrival, he didn’t show it. 

“Save it old man.” Kirsch said, stepping into the room. He hefted a sword. “Time to die, motherfucker.”

Vordenburg’s eyes narrowed. “Another traitor.” He snapped his fingers, and Kirsch’s eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he collapsed limply onto the floor. The mark on his forehead glowed faintly, and then ceased.

Laura thought for one heart stopping moment that he was dead- but she could see the faint rise and fall of his chest.

“Laura, you get the guards. I’ll take care of _him_.” Carmilla snarled, snatching a dagger from the fallen Kirsch’s belt and lodging it in the wrist of one of the guards holding Laura’s arm. He let go with a howl, and Laura quickly drew the blade from the back of her pants and drove it into his leg. She twisted and pulled the knife free as he went down, a possibly severed artery soaking his pants and boots with blood. 

She whirled on the other one, slashing high for his neck. But her attack was clumsy, and he closed his fist around her wrist to stop her knife in it’s path. The man laughed, wrenching her arm around her back so hard Laura swore she heard it crack. His other hand came around her neck, squeezing. Laura sputtered and gasped, scrabbling at his suit and her nails catching on the rough kevlar. She could feel something pressed against her hip, a gun maybe, but her vision was rapidly blacking out.

And then the guards grip loosened and she tore herself away. She turned and saw the guard kick Kirsch’s sword away, the point red with blood. 

“You’re gonna regret that you fucking- hey!” The guard turned, his hand brushing empty air where his gun should’ve been. Laura pointed it at him, flicking off the safety. “H-hey now wait a minute-”

Laura was too close to miss.

“Laura, duck!” Kirsch yelled, helpless on the floor. She dropped, and Vordenburg’s sword missed decapitating her by inches. Laura dropped the gun and fumbled for it, only for Vordenburg to kick it away across the carpet.

“Carm?!” Laura yelped, scrambling away from Vordenburg’s manic slashing.

“I’m a little-” Carmilla grunted. “- _busy_.” She was pinned to the wall through another sword through her middle (seriously, where was Vordenburg getting these?).

Laura only had her knife, and Vordenburg was rapidly backing her into a corner. “Pity about all of this.” He said conversationally. “Ironic that you were one of my greatest supporters in the beginning, and now look at you. About to die in a library for nothing.”

“Shut up!” Laura said, leaping forward with her knife extended. He hastily blocked, the guard of his sword coming up uncomfortably into his chest and bending his arms awkwardly. Laura pressed her advantage, the tip of her knife entering Vordenburg’s chest centimeter by bloody centimeter.

He pushed back with an angry yell, suddenly and with such force that he sent her sprawling. Laura’s head cracked against the floor, and her head spun.

“It’s time to end this.” Vordenburg said, breathing heavily. His suit was disheveled, and a blooming flower of blood stained his white shirt. Behind him, Carmilla struggled vainly to pull herself off the sword.

“You’re right.” Laura slurred. And in one move she reached to the discarded gun on the floor and fired.

The bullet smashed into Vordenburg’s shoulder, spinning him like a top and forcing him to drop his sword. He lay there moaning, looking like crumpled paper.

“Yeah, little nerd hottie!” Kirsch said, staggering to his feet. His stitches were bleeding and staining his t-shirt. He limped across the room, edging around Vordenburg to where Carmilla was trapped. He pulled on the sword, and it slipped out of the wall and Carmilla with a wet sound.

Behind them, the gun fired again. 

Carmilla snarled at the thought of her kill being taken from her, but stopped short at Vordenburg’s sob of pain. 

“That was for Danny.” 

Another shot.

“That was for the newspaper.”

Another.

“That was for Carmilla.”

A pause.

“This is for me.” 

She shot him in the gut, her eyes cold. The gun clicked empty and she threw it away. Vordenburg gurgled on the carpet, bullets lodged in his limbs like pins in a butterfly.

“He’s all yours Carm.” Laura said, her body slumping with exhaustion. Kirsch went with her, and they leaned on each other as they limped out of the study. The last thing they heard before they closed the door was Vordenburg’s final scream before everything went silent.


End file.
